GUELPH, Ont. – Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) stock soared 24 per cent on Wednesday after the Ontario-based solar power company reported second-quarter revenue and profit that were well above analyst estimates.

Its shares jumped $6.06 to close at US$31.03 on Nasdaq, with nearly 19 million shares traded.

The Guelph-based company, which reports in U.S. currency, said earlier Wednesday that its net income was $55.8 million or 95 cents per share and its revenue was $623.8 million in the three months ended June 30.

Analysts had estimated 69 cents per share of net income, or 58 cents after adjustments, with $577.6 million of revenue, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

The company, formed in 2001, has been undergoing a growth spurt. In addition to making equipment modules used to convert the sun’s power into electricity, Canadian Solar builds and sells utility-scale electric generation projects for investors.

Compared with the previous quarter ended March 31, the Canadian Solar’s revenues were up from $466.3 million and net income was up from $3.8 million or seven cents per share. Compared with a year earlier, its second-quarter revenue was up from $380.4 million and the profit compared with a net loss of $12.6 million, or 29 cents per share.

In Canada, it closed the C$60-million sale of the 10-megawatt Val Caron solar plant to Sudbury, Ont., to One West Holdings, an affiliate of Concord Green Energy during the second quarter. It also entered an agreement with a partnership formed by Samsung for the construction of a 140MW solar energy plant in Kingston, Ont.

Canadian Solar said eight of its projects in Ontario are in commercial operation, three of them already sold to investors and five of them in the process of being sold.

It also has solar-power projects under way or planned in the United States, Japan and China.

About 55 per cent, or $346 million, of Canadian Solar’s total second-quarter revenue was from the Americas. Europe accounted for $91.6 million or 14.7 per cent of the total while Asia and other territories accounted for $186.2 million or 29.8 per cent of the second-quarter revenue.

“Our second quarter shipments and revenue came in above the high end of our guidance led by strong module demand out of Japan, Germany, the U.K. and the US, as well as progress in the build-out of our utility-scale solar projects in Canada,” said Shawn Qu, Canadian Solar’s chairman and chief executive.

“We are making steady progress in key developing markets in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, and we continue to see robust demand for our solar energy solutions products and services across all geographies and market segments.”

The company estimates its third-quarter revenue for the third quarter will be between $760 million and $810 million, with gross margin expected to be between 19 per cent and 21 per cent. Gross margin in the second quarter was 19 per cent, up from 14.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2014 and 12.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2013.